The use of electricity to disable human beings and other living targets is well known. In the middle 1800's, electricity was directed through a harpoon to electrocute a whale. Electrocution also came into use as a method of carrying out a death sentence resulting from the commission by a prisoner of a serious crime. Various methods of applying lethal electrical pulses are well documented. A weapon for applying non-lethal electrical pulses to disable an attacker is also known. The conventional weapon launches a first dart and a second dart. Each dart remains connected to the weapon by an electrically conductive guide wire. The darts strike an individual. Electrical pulses from the weapon travel to the first dart, from the first dart through the individual's body, into the second dart, and return to the weapon via the electrically conductive wire attached to the second dart. The electrical pulses occur at a rate of from 2 to 10 pulses per second, are each about 20 kilovolts, and each deliver from 0.01 to 0.5 joule. U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,132 issued in 1981 describes such a dart weapon. That patent also suggests that pulses in the range of 0.01 to 0.5 joule induce involuntary muscular contractions.
Since about 1981, it has also been known that a certain minor percentage of individuals struck with a conventional dart weapon are not immobilized and can “walk through” the electrical pulses and continue an attack, despite being struck with darts from the weapon. The ability of some individuals to “walk through” the electrical pulses was thought to be an anomaly and usually was not taken seriously because the weapon was effective with and stopped most individuals, and because the weapon when used appeared to “knock down” an individual or animal or appeared to cause the individual or animal to fall. The weapon would also sometimes appear to cause the skin of a human being or animal to twitch. Consequently, it was assumed that the human being or animal was truly physically incapacitated.
I have discovered that an individual can be readily trained to “walk through” 0.01 to 0.5 joule pulses delivered by a conventional dart weapon. I have been involved in training over 20 individuals. In each case the individual was, by focusing on a goal, able to ignore and overcome any discomfort from the dart weapon and to continue to walk, run, or attack. The individual did not lose his or her locomotion. In addition, several cases have been reported where the failure of a conventional dart weapon led to the death of an individual because police officers had to resort to lethal force when the dart weapon failed to stop the individual. It appears that conventional dart weapons cause an individual to fall down by activating sensory neurons and by producing in an individual a psychological reaction which strongly suggests to the individual that he or she is being incapacitated. The discovery that an individual can overcome a conventional dart weapon and continue his or her locomotion suggests possible dire consequences because many police officers in possession of conventional dart weapons mistakenly assume that these weapons are effective against most or many individuals.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method which would, with a high degree of certainty, enable a police officer or other individual to incapacitate an attacker.